@James thank you so much for posting this and providing a pretty clear direction on how you all are moving the game forward. While there are a few points I do think are helpful there are a couple that I think are not smart at all and will break the game seriously.
The game improving decisions: (followed by the very poor P2W decision farther down)
I think this is definitely needed because of the push towards character classes and everything. Along with the “build-out experiment” options, it gives us the best ability to customize and ensure that there is a level playing field for everyone and the classes people want to play.
Very smart. Since we had to start using alts because we have no ability to move beyond level 50 it was becoming frustrating in getting certain rewards when they weren’t needed and you want more of another type. This ties into the “class” system perfecting and enhances customization of classes.
I agree with something like this because it can let you maybe save up and use things when needed. I find myself sitting on skill points and not using them until I really see what is needed. Having a solution like this in a larger perspective makes sense and can be leveraged in many ways.
This will help you all with income and is fine because it is just part of character look customization. Many games do this and it is fine. Same goes with respecs and stuff because we get later on in our characters and want to redo things so this provides those options with a small fee. You must be careful, though, that the cubits don’t link to anything related to in game income.
This looks ok as long as the customizations do NOT affect the builds too much in how they look because that will cause things to be too different than you can get via normal game play. I would suggest simple stickers and things more advanced be via normal crafting means. Because not doing this can add to the “attractiveness” of one city over another because people are able to get something special that others cannot.
Yes we need things to make you all be supported financially especially because of the bad decision to move toward plot monetization.
The poor game breaking Pay To Win decision:
You already see how many people are willing to make real world money purchase to get more plots and of course subconsciously it is in your best interest to monetize this part of the game because everyone knows how important they are. This decision is a bad mistake because of how things will play out in the long term of the game and its economy.
Unfortunately, the rationalization of plots you paint is completely off base from the dynamics of the game you all have built. We need to reset your perspective of the game to help explain how you put in a P2W solution. While the way you characterize plots is at some point fair because some people don’t use them as much as others it still is not the correct way to define them because of the underlying game mechanic.
The logic is very simple:
- Prestige = Ranking System of Cities and Capital City definition
- Plots + Resources = Prestige
- Footfall (based on prestige) + Ranking System / Capital / World Taxes = Income
So purchasing plots = more in game income = Pay To Win.
The game mechanic is inherently built around gaining income and the game economy, etc. That is the goal of everyone playing at a base level whether you are a builder, hunter, or merchant. Some people don’t care about income (or say they don’t) but we have seen everyone fight for the best plot spots, you just put a change in to lower plot income if not playing in 7 days, city battles for top ranking and footfall, etc…
So by having more plots it allows you to ultimately gain more prestige than anyone else which results in you making more footfall traffic and a higher city ranking that delivers more tax income. There is no other way to define this but pay to win.
What is worse is then anyone that is not using outside funds to purchase plots will fall farther behind and those that are rich IN GAME will only become richer. It is a self fulfilling cycle and is ultimately not fair. (Note: We have seen this happen with OmniUno and his store how he can outprice and corner the markets. When we get more money powerful people this will ruin the experience of others especially because outside RL cash now increases inside game cash.)
Everyone should get the EXACT same amount of plots and you should in fact remove bonuses from all Founding members. IF you do not do this then you will ultimately give an unfair advantage to people because founders always will have more plots than others. The founders will become the richest people in the game because they can have the most prestige, etc. Additionally, I would suggest that you not sell plots and instead require people to rent servers if they want more plots.
IF you must sell plots, then the only way to fix it and remove the pay to win design is:
-
Remove the prestige/city ranking = tax income system. (Even though I am against Prestige and how you all rank cities, at least income will not be part of it and battles for prestige will not result in additional cash and only linked to personal vanity to be at the top.)
-
Remove the plot = footfall income system. (Footfall should just go away completely and people use the economy to make income.)
At a foundational level doing this will then remove the plot = income dependency model you have built. At that point “plots” will no longer be critical to income, hence moving things back to the only place it should be allowed – the economy (buying/selling of good and providing services). Then plots will only be of interest to people that need them to build and not hunters, healers, etc.
@James, I tried to keep this as simple as possible in my explanation. If you need clarification let me know but I think you get my points even though many others will be very pissed and against them. I cannot stress enough that you are doing P2W as long as plots are linked to any type of income. You need to break one of these base dynamics or the game will fundamentally fail as people figure this out and the gap between those that “paid” and those that “did not pay” see the gap increasing more and more.